


Five Steps Plus One (to love)

by duckiesandlemons



Category: Brave Police J-Decker
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Romance, also spoilers for later half of series, but lovestruck PJ is apparently only PJ I can write, like wow this is teeth rotting cute
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-11
Updated: 2013-08-11
Packaged: 2017-12-23 02:48:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,870
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/921101
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/duckiesandlemons/pseuds/duckiesandlemons
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's a natural progression, a build up, but it all still kind of slaps Power Joe in the face.  Five steps plus one, on a sort of long road.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Five Steps Plus One (to love)

**Author's Note:**

> Started off as something cute for my ship and ballooned into this monster and now I can proudly say it is done. The Bonus Step has a drastic time skip, but that's the only warning. Thank you to the lovely Hana for beta reading~!

**1)   First Impressions**

Power Joe didn’t like Knight.

The mech was an ass, coming in and thinking that he could easily replace Deckerd. After the entire Chieftain ordeal, after Deckerd’s memory loss and even after the successful combination of Fire J-Decker, Power Joe could only really bring himself to have grudging respect for the knight. Needless to say, his first impression of Knight wasn’t all that great.  What really irked him the most was… he couldn’t stop himself from moving his gaze to where Duke sat.  He would just spend some days staring at the other Brave while they went about doing their work and—Power Joe couldn’t understand.

“Maybe you secretly want to be his friend?” Drill Boy prodded, a silly little grin plastered on his face. Power Joe had to scoff at that.

“You gotta be kidding me. No way.”

“But you keep on staring at him.”

“I can’t be friends with Knight.Not after—“

“Maybe you resent how Miss Regina treats AI and you’re subconsciously taking it out on him,” McCrane threw in.  It baffled Power Joe; there was no way it was true, he just didn’t like Knight--that was that.  The other Brave was stuck up, arrogant, and just rubbed Power Joe the wrong way.

“You’re out of your AI, bro,” Power Joe sulked.  

Drill Boy and McCrane had left him alone to brood after that.  It stung a bit, being ignored, but then again Power Joe had better things to be doing than staring at Knight and complaining.  Like work… wow, he never thought he’d be ever saying those lines.  It was a slow day so maybe he could watch the new show that was premiering today while he did his work.  Yeah, that sounded good.  With that he turned on the small TV on his desk, pulling out some files to work on while he tried to ignore Knight’s presence.

**2)  Understanding Effort**

Knight was trying, that much was obvious.  Regina had changed too, and Power Joe was starting to reconsider.  But that  didn’t stop his first impression from wriggling its way through, casting dark thoughts over Power Joe’s AI.  It was hard to accept Knight just like that, especiallyafter the red and white mech had shown up declaring himself the new leader of the Brave Police, telling them that Deckerd was yesterday’s scrap.  Okay, maybe he didn’t put it in words quite like that but that’s what it sure sounded like to Power Joe.  It rubbed him the wrong way, got on his nerves, and it was something he just found hard to forgive.

Everyone else seemed to forgive him, however, and it baffled the yellow mech. It was just… it was just hard and as much as Power Joe wanted to be like Boss, be like Deckerd and forgive, he could never get over that first impression. Yet there was that obvious effort Power Joe couldn’t ignore.

He watched as Knight tentatively held out a hand of friendship to the others.  How he held small talk with McCrane or talked soccer with Drill Boy, how he stuttered his way through conversation with Shadowmaru and returned quips and sayings back to Gunmax—Power Joe watched it all and with a grudging acceptance, he noticed that Knight was trying.

“You should try and at least get to know him,” McCrane said.  “Give him a chance.”

“There are things that are just too hard to forget,” which was the typical excuse he was hiding behind.  

It stayed like that for a couple more days, Knight hesitantly getting along with the others better and better, Power Joe’s brothers telling him to give the Brit a chance.  And each time Power Joe refused, stubborn like always.  That’s why when he suddenly found himself alone with Knight in the Decker Room, he had a feeling that McCrane had said something to Deckerd and that all of this was a set up--a plan to get him to interact more than what was required with the other.

Awkward silence hung heavy in the Decker Room, Power Joe refusing to say anything unless it was absolutely necessary, and since they were really just doing paperwork, that meant he didn’t have to speak with Knight at all.  This settled fine with Power Joe for all of two minutes until the silence just became too much for him to bear.  He was used to the chattering of his bros, the bickering from Shadowmaru and Gunmax’s area, and... the chattering from Knight and Deckerd’s work area. Power Joe had gotten too used to it all and now he was making himself uncomfortable.  Maybe he shouldn’t be so bull headed like his brothers had said (especially since they were starting to compare him to Dumpson--and while his bro made protests about that analogy it was entirely too true).  There was a solution to this, there was, and he knew exactly what it was.

Power Joe turned on his soap operas to fill in the silence.

It stayed like that for about another hour or so, the noise of the soap opera filling the room and clearing out the silence while the two went about their own business filling out paperwork.  Or Power Joe would be but he got a bit too into the soap opera he was watching.  He was so engrossed in it he almost missed the quiet question that Knight tossed his way.

“Are they as entertaining as you say?”

It made Power Joe jump a bit, not expecting that at all, and when he turned around in his seat he saw Knight staring at him from his desk.  Matching green optics met and Power Joe was suddenly at a loss on what to say.  He honestly thought that Knight would have been put off by the silence; of Power Joe’s refusal to speak with him.  Obviously, it was the exact opposite.

“It is,” he kept his answer short and gruff, hoping that the ambulance would get the hint.  He didn’t, which should have been expected since Knight’s AI was based off of Deckerd’s and sometimes it took a brick wall and Gunmax for the blue brave to get some things.

“What is it about them that you like?” and there was the sound of Knight getting up and Power Joe’s AI had a mental panic.  This wasn’t supposed to happen, it really wasn’t, and suddenly there was Knight leaning against his desk, arms crossed, and watching a soap opera with Power Joe.  The power shovel felt like he had entered some realm of surreal and he floundered about for words.  He could respond in a huff, but that was uncalled for.  He could stay quiet, but that really didn’t help his situation any because then Knight would press even more.

“...It’s interesting,” Power Joe answered after a while.  “I mean, it’s interesting seeing how humans act.”

“Even if they’re acting by script?”

“Ya know, it’s better knowing it’s fake over thinking it’s real and then getting hurt by the truth later.”

“I suppose.”

After that, Knight had moved his work to Dumpson’s desk, sat next to Power Joe without being asked, and started watching the soap opera while doing his work.  Power Joe thought about saying something, about how he wasn’t just entitled to sit there, but then Duke said something that had Power Joe in a fit of laughter and it suddenly didn’t seem all that bad.  They spent the rest of the time like that, talking about the drama and how unreal it was and connecting more than they had when Knight first came onto the team.

When everyone came back, Knight left to head back to his own desk and when Power Joe’s brothers sat back down McCrane gave him a small smile.  A subtle encouragement to talk more.  

Knight was trying, so Power Joe had to try too.

**3)  Connection**

Power Joe was still trying to get over the initial shock of the entire Lua ordeal.  The fact that his heart was played as part of a stupid bet left him stunned and he wanted to just go and hide away from the world until he got over the initial shock.  His brothers had tried to talk to him, to comfort him and tell him that everything was okay, and it worked!  It had worked to a certain degree because he knew they cared and they were worried for him but there were just times when Power Joe needed to be alone.  He needed the time to himself to mourn for Lua because she ended up being dragged into all of this without any say in the matter.  He needed the time to get over the shame, the embarrassment, and the hurt from the entire ordeal--especially since they thought he was broken.

“They were going to put a chip in your head that would have blocked out the signals,” McCrane had admitted to him.  “Duke stopped them.”

It was really ironic that the one he had issues with would be the one to come and stand up for him when it really mattered the most.  Power Joe had listened when they talked about how Knight had crushed the chip before Deckerd could catch it, frown on his face and disapproval the first words off his tongue.  He had talked about realities and how they viewed them differently and it was just such a load of bull crap--

Now Power Joe just didn’t want to face the truth.

“Hey,” Knight’s voice startled him and he looked up from his mindless polishing of his tonfa.  He had hidden himself away in some out of the way room of Brave Police headquarters, knowing that if they went out to find him this would be the last place to look.  Power Joe just hadn’t expected Knight of all mechs to be the one to find him.

“...hey,” he greeted after a few tense moments, doing nothing as Knight came over and sat down beside him.  “How did you know?”

“When someone wants to be alone they don’t always go to the more obvious places first,” Knight told him, calm and collected as ever.  Power Joe was envious.  To be able to stay composed under even the toughest of situations was something he’d wish he was better at.  McCrane was good at it, Deckerd was good at it--actually, everyone else was good at it but Power Joe.  Even Drill Boy to a certain degree.

“I guess,” his tone was a bit listless and he tried putting some forced cheer into it but a hand on his shoulder plating stopped him.

“You don’t have to try and stay strong all the time,” Knight said it as if he knew what Power Joe was going through and that sent a hot flash of anger through Power Joe’s systems.  How did Knight possibly know what he was going through?  How was he suddenly the expert on emotions and realities and all that crap when before he was just a stuck up mech trying to take over as leader?

“Like you know that!” Power Joe snapped, staring at Knight with angry optics.  “You just... you just come up here and act like you know everything and it kind of pisses me off!”  It was an emotional outburst but Power Joe couldn’t stop himself.  Each word his anger grew and grew and it needed an outlet.  “I was used and they thought I was broken!” Power Joe’s voice was petering out into a sob at this point and in the end he was clutching at Knight’s shoulders and shaking--a trembling that he couldn’t stop and Power Joe suddenly wanted Knight to just go away and not see him like this.

“...I know a bit,” Knight answered after he stayed painfully quiet, as if Power Joe needed those pitiful few minutes to get himself sorted out.  “Lady... once planted a killswitch to my AI.  If I was not the perfect policeman... if I showed ugly emotions... she would switch it off.”  The words made Power Joe feel like an idiot all over again.  A vicious cycle that somehow wouldn’t stop and it just made him feel worse than he already was because suddenly there was a connection.  Knight understood because once Regina thought of him as broken and had planted a “fix-all” in his head that really wouldn’t haven’t helped.

“S-sorry,” Power Joe backed up a bit, or attempted to, but Knight placed firm hands on his arms to keep him there.

“Everyone needs an outlet.”

It was a sudden breakthrough and Power Joe felt himself fighting back choking noises and sobs as he let the emotional release just... happen.  He “wept.”  It was the only way he could really describe the motions, the noises, he was making.  It was something odd because he had felt sadness before but never to a degree like this.  Knight held him, though; held Power Joe through his weakest moment when it probably should have been the yellow mech’s brothers.  Minutes crawled by, sluggish and dragging on and on and feeling like hours, but Knight didn’t move.  He didn’t tease Power Joe, he didn’t speak or try to put reason into words, he just stayed silent and let Power Joe mourn.  

“Thanks,” Power Joe mumbled when he felt he got all of it out.

“You don’t need to thank me,” Knight pulled back and let Power Joe straighten himself up.  The two settled to where they were sitting side by side, leaning against the storage crates kept in there.

“I didn’t expect you to come,” he felt a bit awkward, fingers drumming against the floor.  “In fact I just expected you to ignore me like you usually do.”  Even though some of it was encouraged by Power Joe’s own behavior.  Sure they talked after that initial conversation from before but after that it sort of... tapered off into when they really only needed to again.  

“I wasn’t ignoring you.”

“Yeah?”

“I was just... nervous.”

Power Joe laughed a bit, “I guess that’s kind of my fault.  I mean I was still stubbornly holding onto that first impression. It got in the way of a lot of things.”

“I did come off rather... strong,” a light chuckle from Knight.  Power Joe laughed more along with the ambulance, a grin making its way onto his face.

“You think?” Power Joe gave Knight a playful nudge, earning him another fit of laughter from the usually uptight mech.  It was nice, really nice, and Power Joe found all of his earlier resentment disappearing just sitting there and talking with Knight.  “So, Knight--” he was cut off by the other speaking up.

“Duke.”

“Wha?”

“Call me Duke.  You’re my friend, it’s kind of pointless to keep on insisting everyone calls me ‘Knight.’”

Power Joe was a bit stumped, “But Shadowmaru and Gunmax--”

“I firmly believe they do it out of friendship,” although the firm line Kn--Duke had set his mouth in told Power Joe that the other didn’t quite believe his own words.  

“So, Duke,” Power Joe corrected himself and earned a small smile from the white and red mech.  “I’m... glad you stood up for me. And I wanted to apologize.”  Power Joe had to swallow his pride, each word stuttered out until he got the full apology out.  Or he would have if Duke hadn’t stopped him.

“I think your friendship is apology enough.”

Power Joe felt relief wash through his systems and he lightened up considerably.  “Yeah, yeah that works,” with that he settled back against the wall again and started asking Duke questions.  Questions that the other answered willingly and, sometimes, threw questions back in return.  Later on, when his brothers noticed how well he was starting to get along with Duke, they cornered him, they bugged him, but all Power Joe told them was that they just understood each other.

**4)  Tiniest Mistake**

“This went into all directions of wrong so fast,” Power Joe mumbled as he watched the screen where that... whatever guy was giving his speech on how they had to cough up so and so much money or else God Whale would wreck even more coastal shores.  It was a horrible situation and the Brave Police were backed against a wall.  Save the whalers, be painted as bad guys doing this all for their own gain.  Kill the whale and still be seen as bad guys.

“What are we going to do?” their boss sounded worried, really worried, and Power Joe couldn’t blame him either.  The Decker Room was uncharacteristically quiet, each mech there trying to find a way around the particular problem presented to them.

“Just do what we can,” Deckerd mumbled.  Duke was silent, looking thoughtful, and Power Joe wanted to know what was going on in that head of his.  With their recent friendship, Duke had felt safe to tell Power Joe some of his thoughts, just tiny little worries in the back of his head from how the others viewed him to small things he had observed in public.  Like how that woman did not need to get an extra thing of whatever it was because obviously it was causing that hole in her pocket she complained about.  Power Joe kind of laughed at that, telling Duke that it was a bit over the top to complain about people he didn’t know.

“Well, until we get orders from the Commissioner let us just do what we can for now, okay?” Yuuta gave them a sort of hopeful grin.

“Yes, Boss!” all of them shouted, going back to their work.  Well, attempted to.  A majority of them actually got up to leave.  Find old cases similar to this (Power Joe highly doubted there was any), go for a mind clearing drive, or to just go talk to people.  It left him in the Decker Room with Duke, the boss, and some rather uncomfortable silence.  

Power Joe started working on filling up some paperwork in the hopes of distracting himself because as much as he wanted to talk he just... didn’t know what to say, which was odd.  It could probably be associated with that odd feeling he had had all day and couldn’t quite shake.  Maybe it was that thing McCrane kept on talking about... like... premonition or something.  Power Joe listened in once but now he couldn’t really remember.  It was probably important, whatever it was.  There was more silence before Duke stood up to leave as well, dismissing himself with a nod of his helm.  Yuuta watched as the ambulance left the room, a frown on his face.  “Power Joe, do you know if Duke’s okay?” the kid asked.

“Ah, no, not really,” the power shovel answered.  He was a bit worried though.  Duke was a friend, a close friend even though Power Joe was still in that awkward stage of denial about it.  

“I see... I was wondering if you knew since he talks to you the most,” with that Yuuta went back to trying to figure out what to do with the God Whale case.  What the kid said made Power Joe pause a bit.  He wasn’t even aware that Duke talked to him more than others.  Power Joe thought that Duke spent more time talking to Deckerd, considering the fact they combined together and shared similar interests.  Well, maybe not on that last one but Power Joe definitely thought Duke spent more time talking with others.  Especially since Power Joe was the one who originally showed open hostility.  Duke had been oddly quiet though and that nagging feeling Power Joe had all day was intensifying.  It made him worry and while he wasn’t one to worry much, he knew from conversations with the knight detective that Duke tended to... keep things in.  

He stood up from his desk, determining that the rest of his paperwork could wait and that the others would be back so Boss wouldn’t be alone for too long.  “I’ll be right back, Boss,” he said before making his way out of the Decker Room to find Duke.

He found the white mech holed up in the room they had first talked in.  Power Joe had a feeling that Duke would have ended up here if he hadn’t gone out on a drive to clear his thoughts.  It held a lot of important memories--to the both of them.  It was a place both tended to gravitate towards to when they were down and now it was no different.  “Hey,” Power Joe greeted, keeping his voice casual as he sat down next to Duke.  The other mech didn’t even seem to notice Power Joe’s presence, still just sitting there with helm tipped forward and... thinking.  So Power Joe just sat there and let Duke think, because when Duke got like this it was impossible to get him to speak unless he wanted to.  It was something he learned the hard way, when he prodded a bit too much and got a snappy response in return.  Both apologized later, but now it was just something they sort of compromised on.

It was a while later when Duke spoke up, “Do you think what we’re doing is right?”

“...what part?  Saving the whalers or hunting down that whale?”

“Both?”

Power Joe didn’t really know how to answer that.  “I... think that saving the humans was right,” Power Joe said, “considering that sooner or later they would be put behind bars.  But we just can’t let that whale go around and destroy things.  It’s hurting more than just the whalers.”  It was a hard answer to come up with, and the silence Duke gave him meant it was probably the wrong one, too.  Power Joe hadn’t felt this awkward in a long time.  Not since that first conversation they held when watching his soap operas together.  Not since he accidentally pulled a rather stupid stunt and cracked Duke’s windshield.  Not since--

“It thinks just like us,” Duke said.  “It’s just like us and that’s what gets me the most.”

“...really?”

“Yes.”

That presented an interesting thought, one Power Joe rolled over in his mind, but in the end he just couldn’t agree to that.  If that whale truly had a mind of its own, an AI like theirs, then it could be reasoned with.  Power Joe just... couldn’t see it.  He couldn’t see it at all.  Because if God Whale was like them and could be reasoned with, the same could be said of the Chieftains and that left a bitter taste in his mouth.  He knew he shouldn’t say anything, that incident was one best left forgotten, but anger started rising up high.  “If that’s true then it’s like the Chieftains,” he blurted out, AI shooting off words to his mouth before he could even stop them.  Chieftains were, and always would be, a touchy topic and with how Duke shot him a look, Power Joe knew that he had crossed a line that really shouldn’t have been crossed.  “Sorry,” he muttered, looking away, but the damage had already been done.

“I...suppose,” Duke ground out before standing up to leave.

Yeah, Power Joe messed up big time.  Where he could have said “then we should have been able to reason with it” he went and said the first thing in his processor again.  Out of left field, insensitive, and his friendship with Duke had already been strenuous.

Power Joe wondered why it was that Duke made him feel this deep ache--not Deckerd, not the boss, not Emily or Kikomaro or Masaki, and definitely not his brothers whose relationship he depended on to form Super Build Tiger.

It was just Duke.

“Dammit,” he muttered, knocking his helm against the wall.

**5) A Tentative yet Hopeful Peace**

Duke had kept words with him to a bare minimum, what was necessary. Past that Power Joe had to make a solid effort to coax one or two more words extra.  The ambulance, even after their resolution of the God Whale conflict (and the mer people, who were a bit over the top but at the same time eye-opening in a way, Power Joe admitted), still remembered Power Joe’s callous remark.  The yellow mech fidgeted with agitation, the annoyance riding high, and he kept on trying to find a way to apologize without drawing attention to himself because it was embarrassing and, well, he didn’t know why but he felt he had to keep this cool act in front of Duke.  Try to tell the other “Hey, I’m not entirely useless like you and the others seem to think sometimes” through his words and actions more than anything.  Power Joe felt ridiculous about it but he couldn’t help it.

That being said, there was never a time he could get Duke alone since every chance the ambulance got, he high tailed it out of there.  It was getting annoying and Power Joe was suffering and at his wit’s end.  

“Hey, hey, Power Joe?” Drill Boy asked, prodding one of his helm fins.  “You’ve been looking grumpy lately, are you okay?”

“I’m fine, really,” he insisted but the frowns from his brothers told him that they really didn’t believe it.

“Whatever issue you have, you should settle it soon,” McCrane said.  “I’ll be glad to listen if you just need someone to vent to.”

“And I’ll offer advice!” Dumpson added.  

Drill Boy looked excited, bouncing up and down in place and grinning. “And I’ll offer soccer as morale boosting!”

“Not everything revolves around soccer, dummy,” Power Joe teased but his brothers’ words did make him feel a bit better.  The only issue now being that he was too embarrassed to tell them because, hey, what does he tell them?  I feel this sort of loneliness when Duke doesn’t talk to me and oh yeah, by the way, we were totally BFFs until I said some stupid crap about the Chieftains and there I sort of dug my own grave.  Certainly not that and the very idea of him saying that made Power Joe choke a bit.  

His brothers also wouldn’t let him hear the end of it and if they caught wind of it then Gunmax wouldn’t be too far behind.  That was one obstacle that Power Joe wasn’t ready to deal with so he wisely kept his mouth shut on the entire thing.  

“I got it,” he told McCrane.  “No worries, it won’t mess us up in forming Super Build Tiger either.”  

The nod he received was good enough for him and Power Joe went back to thinking of ways to apologize by himself.  The tricky part was, once again, getting Duke alone without making himself look pushy, which was hard.  All things considered, it was probably easier than how Power Joe was making it.

“Duke, can you pass me those files?”

“Hey, Brit Bot, I need you to look over these.”

“Let’s play soccer after this!”

“If you don’t mind, could you come with me in a few to collect some things from the records room?”

Of course with work picking up, that was easier said than done.  Power Joe sighed, slumping forward in his chair and staring at the computer screen on his desk playing the recent episode of one of the soap operas he was watching.  It was getting to the high point of the episode, a love triangle about to either break or resolve itself, and he was interested, but that ache in his plating was still there and it seemed to intensify whenever he looked at Duke.  It had to be the guilt, that was it, and he tried to push it from his AI.  He hazarded a look to where Duke was, noticing that he and Gunmax were talking, and when the biker placed a hand on Duke’s shoulder to lean forward some, something white hot flared up in him.

Power Joe felt it before, he knew that feeling, and he jumped, pen clattering loudly on the desk and body jolting back in his chair.  Apparently it was loud enough to attract everyone’s gaze.  They were all varying degrees of worried.

“Power Joe,” Yuuta started, frowning, “are you okay?”

“Absolutely fine boss!” he said, putting on a false grin.  “Hey, McCrane, let me go get the records for you instead, I’m feeling a bit antsy!”

“Okay--”

Power Joe got up to leave before anyone could say anything else.  He heard Gunmax say something but he was blocking everything out of his audios, making his way to the records room with single-minded determination.  That feeling from before, it was jealousy - something he had felt during the Lua situation when he had thought everyone was after her.  Feeling that for them just interacting with Duke made him nervous because, well--

It was Duke!

It was absurd that he would feel something like that involving the Knight Detective and it made him laugh in this sort of sardonic way because, really, no way.  Power Joe opened the door to the records archive, stepping in and leaning against one of the shelves they had.  He didn’t even know what file to grab, he just did that to get out of there so he could think without jealousy flaring up every two seconds.  Is it because Duke originally was closer to him?  Was that why he was feeling like this?

“Do you even know what you’re going to grab?”

Power Joe jumped again, turning around to see Duke standing there looking slightly amused.  Really, his face showed more annoyance than anything and he walked up to Power Joe, tilting his head down to look him directly in the optics, “You’ve been acting strange according to your brothers.”

“Strange?  No, no, I’m perfectly fine!  We can still form Super Build Tiger right?”

Duke was silent for a moment before nodding his head in affirmation, “Strange.”

Power Joe fell quiet at that, looking down, and his unease was replaced with anger, “You’re the strange one here though!”  Duke stepped back when Power Joe’s finger was jabbing his windshield, the white mech startled, and Power Joe continued.  “You keep on avoiding me and it’s been how long since that incident?”  A sharp intake of air to cool down heating systems, “That’s what I just didn’t like about you, you just gotta be perfect or something and this is just--this is just really off topic but I want to apologize but you keep on avoiding me I’m--”

“It’s accepted.”

“What?”

“Apology, it’s accepted.”

Power Joe was slack jawed, the wind pushed out of his sails, and he dropped his arm to the side.  “That was...really easy,” he mumbled.  And totally not by the book either.  It was really like a scene from one of his soap operas and there was irony in that, he was sure, but at the moment he was still trying to get over the sudden acceptance.  And the fact Duke was smiling.  

Smiling.

“Why are you smiling?” he asked, quirking a brow ridge.  “That’s a bit disturbing, normal people don’t smile after being yelled at.”

Duke chuckled, “You could say it’s because I’m happy.”

“Happy?  Are you serious?”

“Well, it’s the first time someone’s really pointed flaws out to me.  You could say,” Duke paused, laughing once more, and Power Joe felt himself slipping just a bit because there was that ache again, “that it made me truly feel like I had a friend.”

It was then everything kind of smacked Power Joe in the face like a punch from Super Build Tiger itself, regardless of the improbabilities, because Duke--who had the full attentions of Deckerd and Yuuta and everyone else in the Decker Room because they were accepting him in their own ways--felt it was Power Joe who was his true friend.  It made his insides warm, a little twisty, like something was wrong with his internal structure, and his joints a bit weak, and this was--

Really stupid, because--

Because--

“Power Joe, are you alright?”

He had fallen totally, totally in love.

**Bonus Step!  Three Word Confession**

They were celebrating something, at this point Power Joe isn’t sure anymore.  They celebrated a lot of things.  From their build days to when important cases were cracked to when they had successfully prevented their world from being destroyed.  That was a stressful time and Power Joe honestly thought he wouldn’t make it but, well, according to Todou, they had evolved.  Power Joe had hoped with their evolution his love (or crush; he just really wasn’t sure but he felt his internals pound hard for the white mech in everything but what Gunmax crassly crooned about when he wanted to fluster Deckerd) for Duke would settle into the easy realization that they were just good friends.

It hadn’t, and Power Joe had accepted this and had vowed to confess because even if he was rejected, it was a weight off his chest.  If rejection ever came, then Power Joe was sure he wouldn’t let it hurt him too much.  It was just another romance not meant to be and he’d move on with his life.  Besides, it wasn’t like his love for Duke got in the way of work or anything.  He just let it burn quietly in the back of his AI, let it build up gradually--he had found various things to love even more about Duke.  From how the Knight Detective tilted his head sometimes to the slight twist of his lips when annoyed all the way too how he spoke--all tiny details Power Joe came to appreciate.

It was kind of painful.

He wondered if this was how Shadowmaru felt in his initial stages of mooning over Deckerd (because really it was no secret to the build team what the other three of their group were doing. Even though Shadowmaru was a ninja, he sucked at keeping secrets in the office) and if the dog ever went through stupid plans like he was doing.  Power Joe found it highly unlikely because Shadowmaru also seemed to be the type to be very blunt about how he felt.  If only he could say the same thing about himself.  There was another cheer from the group of people on the party table they always set up for them in the garage, laughter ringing out and noise makers being popped.

Power Joe really did forget what they were celebrating today.  Maybe Yuuta, Emily, Masaki, and Kikomaro’s entrance into middle school, maybe Seia and McCrane’s engagement (because finally his brother stopped chickening out and Seia took the initiative), there were many reasons, he just didn’t know because he was too busy being distracted by his own thoughts.  Really, had it been that long since the Hyjuss?  He brushed it off, thinking to himself.  He said he would confess today, right?

So he would, but he--he needed practice first.  Practice was always good.

“I love you,” he whispered, under his breath, thinking of Duke. The brush of a hand against his made him jump.

“I know,” and Power Joe was looking into matching green optics.

There was another reason to celebrate that day. 


End file.
